Tōru Iwatani (岩谷 徹, Iwatani Tōru) was born on January 25, 1955. He is a Japanese video game designer who worked for Namco for most of his career. He is most famous for creating the arcade game Pac-Man, which was released in 1980. In 2009, Iwatani was named one of the top 100 game creators of all time by IGN.

Early life

Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan, on January 25, 1955. When he was young, he and his family moved to the Tōhoku region of Japan after his father began working as an engineer for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. After starting junior high school, Iwatani returned to Tokyo. He graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University High School and later earned a degree in engineering from Tokai University. Iwatani learned about computers on his own and did not receive formal training in programming or graphic design. He often filled his textbooks with drawings from manga, which he says greatly influenced the character designs in his games.

Career

At age 22, Iwatani joined the Japanese video game publisher Namco in 1977. Before joining, Namco had acquired the rights to the Japanese division of Atari, Inc. from Nolan Bushnell, allowing them to distribute many of Atari’s games, such as Breakout, across the country. This became a huge success for Namco, which led the company to decide to create its own video games instead of relying on other companies.

Iwatani was assigned to Namco’s video game development division when he arrived. He originally wanted to create pinball machines, but Namco executives refused the idea because of patent issues. As a compromise, Iwatani was allowed to create a video game based on the concept of pinball. With help from programmer Shigeichi Ishimura, Iwatani created Gee Bee, released in 1978. While not as successful as expected, Gee Bee helped Namco gain a position in the growing video game market. Two sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, were released in 1979, with Iwatani working as a designer on both.

By the end of 1979, Iwatani became disappointed with the video game industry, believing it focused too much on violent "war" games, like Space Invaders, and sports games similar to Pong, which appealed mostly to men. He decided to create a game that would appeal to women, using cute, colorful characters and simple gameplay centered on the idea of eating. With a team of nine employees, Iwatani created Pac-Man, which was test-marketed on May 22, 1980, and released in Japan in July and North America in October. While Pac-Man had only moderate success in Japan, where it was outperformed by Namco’s Galaxian, it became extremely successful in North America, selling over 100,000 arcade units and becoming the best-selling and highest-grossing arcade game of all time. Pac-Man remains Namco’s most successful video game and the company’s signature title. After its release, Iwatani was promoted within Namco, eventually overseeing the company’s administration. Despite Pac-Man’s success, Iwatani did not receive a bonus or salary increase. A common story claims he left Namco angry over the lack of recognition, but he has said this is false.

In 1983, Iwatani designed Libble Rabble, a twin-stick puzzle game inspired by a childhood game he played. He considers Libble Rabble his favorite game. He also worked as a producer for several Namco arcade games, including Rally-X, Galaga, Pole Position, Ridge Racer, and Time Crisis. From April 2005, he taught Character Design Studies at Osaka University of Arts as a visiting professor. Iwatani left Namco in March 2007 to become a full-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University. He returned to Pac-Man in 2007 by developing Pac-Man Championship Edition for the Xbox 360, which he said would be his final game.

On June 3, 2010, at the Festival of Games, Iwatani received a certificate from Guinness World Records for Pac-Man having the most "coin-operated arcade machines" installed worldwide: 293,822. The record was set in 2005 and included in the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition 2008.

Iwatani was portrayed in the Adam Sandler sci-fi comedy Pixels by actor Denis Akiyama, while Iwatani himself appeared in the film as an arcade repairman.

Writings

• Iwatani, Toru (2005-09-17). Pac-Man's Game Learning Introduction [sic]. Enter Brain. ISBN 978-4757717527.
• Iwatani, Toru (2012-06-21). The Style of Game [sic]. Ohta Books. ISBN 978-4778313265.